St Margaret of ScotlandSafeguarding
Safeguarding
At St Margaret’s the safety of our children is paramount.
It is our key aim to ensure that St Margaret’s is a safe, secure and caring environment for all our children. Our intention is that every child will develop and grow into a mature and responsible citizen.
Our curriculum provides activities and opportunities that will equip our children with the skills they need to stay safe. This will also be extended to include material that will encourage our children to develop essential life skills.
We seek to protect children against the messages of all violent extremism from any background. We develop children's knowledge of the wider community through our work on community cohesion and with the School's Linking Network.
St Margaret’s is fully committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of all children. We recognise our responsibilities to take all reasonable steps to promote safe practice and to protect children from harm, abuse and neglect.
At all times we will work to establish effective working relationships with parents, carers and colleagues from other agencies such as Health or Social Care (Children and Families within the Children and Learning Department).
We want children at our school to feel able to talk freely to any member of staff or regular visitor if they are worried or concerned about something.
The best interests of the children will always be our priority. As such, there are times we will need to record, monitor and share information with other agencies. We will share concerns about our children with the child’s parents/carers unless we have reason to believe that this would not be in the child’s best interest.
We also acknowledge our duty to act appropriately with regards to any allegations towards a member of staff or volunteer, or towards any disclosures or suspicion of abuse. We recognise our duty of care to safeguard children as detailed under the Children Acts’ 1989 and 2004, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.
We have a number of policies which explain how the school protects the children in our care and information for teachers, parents, carers and visitors to the school to help them understand what is expected of them both while they are engaged in any activity associated with the school and its children, on or off site.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding safeguarding, child protection or children’s safety please talk to your child’s class teacher, Ms Julie Barnaville, Family Worker or Mrs Jenny Newman, DSL.